Blog

Isaiah 61:11

For as the earth bringeth forth her bud,
and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth;
so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth
before all the nations.

Even with cool nights here in Maine, the earlier sunrises and the warm days testify to Spring’s entrance. It’s happens every year, too. Spring gives me a sense of renewed hope, of new opportunity, of fresh grace.

At this point in Isaiah, the Lord is declaring how the Gentile nations will become part of the Jewish nation and all of the blessings that come with that. We see glimmers of that today with the spread of the gospel throughout the world. Individual lives are changed by grace and through faith in Jesus, and as that spreads in communities and nation there is a real difference.

Looking around today, it’s hard to feel like it’s “springtime” in human history, but trust the promises of the Word. There will come a day in the kingdom of heaven when righteousness and praise of God will be the new and everlasting global normal. What a wonderful day that will be! Until then, let’s actively thank and praise the Lord in our part of the world.

-Pastor C.

Isaiah 47:10

For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness: thou hast said, None seeth me.
Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee;
and thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me.

As the Lord has continued to say “I am the Lord, there is none else,” he is building up to this statement. Though kings, creation, salvation, and history demonstrate that he is the Lord, and there is none else, that’s not how we live.

Notice the comma after “I am.” We sometimes live like we’re self-existent gods. We sometimes speak as if we know all things, we sometimes make decisions as if we possess all wisdom, we sometimes act with the boldness of omnipotence. We trust in ourselves. Yet, events like the virus provide the blessing of seeing things more correctly. We’re small and weak, needy and broken. We’re dependent.

Oh, Lord help us to be fully dependent upon you, so that the promises of verse 11 do not come upon us!

Isaiah 47:11 – Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth:
and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off:
and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know.

Christian, are you living like you’re a “god?” All that really means today is that your living without prayer, without the Word, and without faith in the proper Person. It means pretending to be independent and ignoring the reality of total dependence upon the Lord!

May the Lord open our eyes to the answer of this question!

-Pastor C.

Isaiah 46:9-10

Remember the former things of old:
for I am God, and there is none else;
I am God, and there is none like me,
Declaring the end from the beginning,
and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand,
and I will do all my pleasure:

I love stone walls. Not just any kind but the New England kind, showing up seemingly randomly in the woods. They are a testament to somebody’s diligence and hard work in the past. They are a witness to their presence and life. Stone walls help me to remember that my life will be here one moment and gone the next. The fields I will plow and the walls I build may eventually be mature forests and I will be part of the long procession of the forgotten.

My God, however, will not be forgotten. He is not left in the silent past. He was there, he is here, and he will be actively directing the future. We look to the acts of God in history to strengthen our faith in the present and hope for the future. We can be encouraged that all of the promises he has made to us will be kept.

When we see those old stone walls, we can praise the Lord for his faithfulness to all generations, but even more so, when we read of Moses, Rahab, Hannah, David, and Paul, we know that the same God is our Lord.

Lord help us to be full of faith.

-Pastor C.